COVAX - The African Mirror

Apr

2021

Africa overwhelmed by vaccine challenge

EDWARD McALLISTER WHEN Ghana received 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from India last month, it hit a frustrating roadblock: it had not trained enough staff to distribute them. The country was still rolling out shots received in late February from the global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX, and didn't have the capacity to expand that operation, according to the head of Ghana's immunisation programme. Rather than going straight into the arms of health workers, the additional doses were put in cold storage in the capital Accra, Kwame Amponsa-Achiano told Reuters, adding that his team had received two days' notice about the shipment. "We…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

“Shocking vaccine disparity”

COVID-19

THERE is still a "shocking disparity" in the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. Tedros, addressing an event of the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, said that some low and middle-income countries in the COVAX facility still had not received any vaccines, while others had not received their second round allocation. "We need an urgent scale-up in financing COVAX," he said. Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and chair of the African Union, said he hoped that people on the African continent would have the same…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Cameroon receives 200 000 doses

COVID-19

CAMEROON took delivery yesterday of 200 000 doses of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines, the first vaccines to arrive in the country, which will enable it to inoculate frontline workers as it battles rising cases of coronavirus, the health ministry said. The Central African nation has been hit hard by a second wave of the pandemic. The health ministry has so far reported over 61,700 cases with 919 deaths since the outbreak. Reuters data shows that daily average numbers of coronavirus-related deaths reported in Cameroon has reached a new high of more than 53. The health ministry said in a statement…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Vaccine delay could be catastrophic for Africa ‘

COVID-19

INDIA’S temporary hold on major exports of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot will undermine Africa's vaccination plans, and could have a "catastrophic" impact if extended, the head of the continent's disease control body said yesterday. India decided to delay big exports of the shots made in its territory by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to make sure it could meet local demand, two sources told Reuters last week. The hold "will definitely impact our ability to continuously vaccinate people," the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told a news conference in Addis Ababa. The African…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

South Sudan face logistics challenge

COVID-19

THOUGH South Sudan has secured more than 2 million COVID-19 vaccines it will struggle to get shots into arms as the rainy season approaches, rendering many roads in one of the world's poorest nations impassable, the outgoing head of the U.N. mission in the country said. Getting vaccines out to the population "is not as easy as it sounds, in a place like South Sudan where logistics are so difficult", said David Shearer, who leaves the country next month after heading the more than $1 billion per year United Nations peacekeeping mission since 2016. David Shearer. Picture: United Nations South…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia to get 300,000 doses of vaccines

COVID-19

ETHIOPIA is to receive 300,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from China's state-backed China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). The Sinopharm doses are the first shots Ethiopia has secured outside the global COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative, Health Minister Lia Tadesse told Reuters in a text message. Ethiopia is struggling to administer shots and tame infections that have spiked. In the past month, it has recorded a 26% increase in coronavirus infections and deaths rose by 18%, health ministry data shows. On Thursday, Africa's disease control body, the Africa CDC, said Ethiopia had reported the highest number of new cases in the last week of…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Morocco expects 4.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses soon, officials say

COVID-19

MOROCCO expects new batches of coronavirus vaccine to arrive soon from Russia, South Korea and China, allowing it to continue its rapid immunisation roll-out despite a pause in exports from India, health ministry sources said. Morocco has already received 8.5-million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, made in India, and Sinopharm vaccine, made in China, allowing it to administer more jabs than any other African country. It expects 4.2-million more doses soon, said Health Ministry scientific committee member Said Afif, keeping it on track to reach its target of herd immunity before the summer. These include two million more Sinopharm doses, a…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Solar technologies can speed up vaccine rollout in Africa. Here’s how

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

THER'S hope that some industrialised countries will achieve near-universal vaccination against COVID-19 in the coming months. Yet the effort to vaccinate even the most essential workers in developing countries has only just begun. By current estimates, achieving herd immunity (to current strains) will require at least 75% of the world’s population to be vaccinated. Some developing countries haven’t reached that level of coverage even for common vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and polio. CYRUS SINAI, PhD student, Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ROB FETTER, Senior Policy Associate, Energy Access Project, Duke University Many low-income countries will…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

China donates 400,000 vaccines to Niger

COVID-19

CHINA has donated 400,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm to Niger, the first vaccines the West African nation has received, Niger's presidency said. Vaccinations have been slow to get started in many African countries, which are primarily relying on free vaccines from COVAX, a programme backed by the World Health Organization and other international organisations. China has donated vaccines to several other African countries as it aims to cultivate goodwill through so-called vaccine diplomacy. Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou received the vaccines at a ceremony in the capital Niamey that was also attended by the Chinese ambassador. "Starting…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Ethiopian Airlines says ready to transport COVID-19 vaccines

NEWS

ETHIOPIAN Airlines is set to take a lead role in ferrying COVID-19 vaccines around the world and expects demand for the service to last for up to three years, its head of cargo services said yesterday. Africa's biggest carrier has turned to cargo services to shore up revenue after the onset of the coronavirus crisis last year sent passenger numbers down sharply. "We have aircrafts converted from passengers by removing their seats, 16 of them, which are very wide aircrafts converted to transport vaccines," Fitsum Abadi, the managing director of Ethiopian Cargo, told Reuters. He was speaking after an Ethiopian…